Russian plane makes emergency landing in Siberia due to crack in cockpit windscreen

MOSCOW
: Russian Boeing 737 with 173 people on board safely landed in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk after the crew noticed a crack in the cockpit windshield.

The NordStar flight was travelling from the Russian city of Novosibirsk to Sanya in southern China when the crew noticed a crack in the cockpit windshield and decided to conduct an emergency landing at Krasnoyarsk Airport.

A spokesperson at the local transport prosecutor’s office said that the crew received a “technical problem” signal coming from one of the indicators on board.

Before conducting the manoeuvre, the aircraft had to circle around the airport for several hours in order to dump fuel, while fire trucks and ambulances were rushed to the scene. The plane ultimately made a safe landing at 5:24pm local time.

“None of the passengers or the crew were harmed,” air traffic control sources told TASS news agency.

Cockpit windscreens are formed of several layers and are designed to withstand air pressure of up to 500 knots and accidents such as hitting a bird in flight.

But they are not indestructible, with windscreen cracks most likely to be caused by hailstones, or a malfunctioning component within the cockpit.

Issues may also occur if the glass is not heated properly, causing it to short-circuit due to the differences in pressure inside and outside the cabin.

Last year a TUI flight from Gran Canaria to Bristol was forced to make an emergency landing in Portugal as a result of a cracked windshield.

In May earlier this year a co-pilot was ‘sucked halfway out’ of his cockpit after the windshield of a Chinese passenger jet shattered at an altitude of 32,000 feet.